New Music - The Mendoza Line

The Mendoza Line will release 30 Year Low on August 21 through Glurp. The mini-album finds the band in a state of flux, as both the songwriting partnership and the marriage of primary band members Timothy Bracy and Shannon McArdle is over.

According to Glurp:

As a follow up to the critically acclaimed 2003 release Full of Light and Full of Fire, the new album accrues to a sense of fear and anxiety about the aging of both our bodies and our social institutions. Setting aside personal strife the band continues as ever to co-mingle the personal and the political, documenting the disenfranchised and working poor.

Whether personal or political, literal or metaphoric, Bracy and McArdle's dueling narratives feel like a punch to the throat. McArdle works her early Liz Phair vocals against Bracy's bluesy rasp, each songwriter trading off as lead vocalist.

After nearly a decade of making music together, Tim is stickin' it out as the band's main-man while Shannon will go on to other projects. What we're left with is eight songs so gut-wrenchingly personal you can't help but be swept up in the bitter heartsickness. 30 Year Low is a crowded, brutal, witty, authentic, vigorous mess of history and hurt feelings, a vivid and contradictory document of life at the edge of 30, and the death of love for two beaten-down and tangled-up souls.

MP3 :: Since I Came
MP3 :: 30 Year Low
(from 30 Year Low)
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An outtake from the recording has also been made available at the label’s site:
MP3 :: Aspects Of An Old Maid (Alt. Version)

The album version of “Aspects Of An Old Maid” will feature McArdle trading verses with Okkervil River’s Will Sheff instead of Bracy, so keep an ear out for that. 30 Year Low will also be packaged with a collection of rarities entitled Final Remarks of the Legendary Malcontent. The bonus disc will feature a mix of 18 demos, live and alternate takes, outtakes, and covers.
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Future tour dates will feature Timothy Bracy with the band:

08/01 Washington DC @ The Black Cat
08/02 Knoxville TN @ The Pilot Light
08/05 Atlanta GA @ The Earl
08/08 Austin TX @ Emo's
08/09 San Antonio TX @ Casbeer's
08/13 Chicago IL @ Schuba's
08/18 Buffalo NY @ Mohawk Place
08/24 Cambridge MA @ TT The Bear's
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